Man Pleads Guilty to Killing Pelicans

Though he destroyed more than 1,000 nests worth of chicks and eggs of the American White Pelican nearly obliterating a colony on land he rented, a guilty plea by Minnesota farmer Craig Staloch means that he faces, at most, six months in jail.

Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy, their son, Desmond Shearwater, and their indoor cat, B.B. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.

So exactly how to people feel about this Migratory Bird treaty anyways? I have been researching it for the last year and realize that most people don’t care or have never heard of it, and the people who have heard of it, don’t know what it is. When I tell them, they can’t even interpret it correctly.

That’s severe. I can see why the courts would be rather “mild” on someone who … you know … shoots a single hawk because it is nesting in his backyard and attacking his kids. Cases like that, involving single birds, very special circumstances where you can see that people did what they normally wouldn’t do – but wiping out an entire colony of pelicans? Clubbing to death dozens / hundreds of chicks? Geez. That takes a whole pile of criminal energy. And six months for that? Now, six months can be a long time, but in this case it seems ridiculous.

I must be getting really jaded. When I read this story I found myself thankful that he was getting at least *some* real punishment. I guess I’m too used to people getting even less than a slap on the wrist for this sort of thing (e.g. a $1 fine for shooting an endangered species?). Any jail time at all would be an improvement over what we’ve seen lately.

I used to be in support of the USFWS and GFP until recently when I was declared a federal criminal as well, because I had some frozen ducks and tried to donate them to my local food bank and got fined $900.00 for it. Not including the cost of the lawyer and everything else. Lets just say I no longer respect what exactly it is that the USFWS does. Except in the case of the pelican situation where this guy clearly did something wrong. Perhaps the USFWS would find more people like that if they actually went out into the fields instead of knocking on my door after I called them about wanting to donate ducks. Let this be a warning for those who cannot unterstand the 100 page federal regulations on waterfowl which happens to be written in terms that the average lawyer can’t interpret; don’t mess with anything that comes with a manual larger than a college textbook !!

I’m starting to get really tired of the news that comes from that part of Minnesota on a nearly daily basis. Must be something in the corn.

I favor the creation of a huge Prairielands National Park that includes everything from Albert Lee to the South Dakota order and beyond, and parts of northern Iowa. ‘Nuke’ all the corn fields and put down prairie grasses, dig up the grid of roads, introduce more bison, pronghorns, bring back elk, and dot the perimeter road of the park with Native American gaming sites associated with staring-out points for wilderness adventure trips. And windmills.